


Bury A Friend

by Gamzee_Makaraoni



Category: Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Blood and Violence, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mild Gore, Nonbinary Character, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 10:30:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18444734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamzee_Makaraoni/pseuds/Gamzee_Makaraoni
Summary: A piece I wrote focused on my spidersona, Parker Wells aka Aquaticus, and the birth of Scream, one of their first foes.





	Bury A Friend

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! i literally havent posted in over a year but i am back and finally posting something publicly that isnt rated T. the violence in this is probably not as graphic as canon violence is, but i wanted to stay safe jic. i actually had written this initially for a spidersona rp im in, and i hope you guys like this even without being familiar with the characters. anyways, enjoy!

"No, no, what are you doing-Help me-HELP ME!"

Parker struggled against their bonds, too shocked to try to scream for help as they watched the plexiglass cell full of kidnapped residents of San Francisco, the people in there screaming and pounding on the walls as the mass of symbiotic goo split up into five separate blobs and started to overtake them. Their eyes are focused on one person, though-Donna Diego, their high school theater teacher. One by one, humans were drained of their energy and left lifeless on the ground, black slime oozing out of their orifices, while the masses only grew stronger. Slowly, each one seemed to find a person strong enough to hold them, growing still and hardening in a sort of cocoon, until Donna and a handful of people were left to face off against the fifth one.

"Interesting. Did you get all of that, Jamison?" A cool voice murmurs behind Parker, one they knew all too well. Natalie Espen, the mother of Parker's best friend, Hazel, and the CEO of Life Foundation, which she had been using as a front for human experimentation and countless other crimes. God, Parker shouldn't have gone in without alerting someone. The police weren’t always the most helpful, but a heads up would’ve gone a long way.

"Yes, ma'am," a scientist replies on the other side of Parker, his pencil scratching against paper. There are several scientists scattered across the main room, some manning different scanners hooked to wires feeding into the floor near the plexiglass, and a side room reveals even more sitting in front of heavy machinery and computers, which they seem to be copying information from.

"Excellent." Natalie steps up to stand next to Parker, smirking at them. "Look at this, little spider. Isn't it wonderful? You're witnessing the dawn of a new era for humanity. By fusing with these alien predators, we'll have access to their brute force, and they'll finally have a mind to think with. Our powers will be unlimited."

Parker doesn't even have a snarky reply, watching in horror as a man around their father's age falls victim to the last symbiote, choking to death on the sludge dribbling out of his mouth. The symbiote slithers out of him, still a shapeless mass, and stares down the remaining four humans-Donna, two teenagers, and a young man. Donna's eyes shift to Parker, then the other three prisoners, and back to Parker, before she steps forward, shoulders squared. No, no-

"Take me. The other three still have their lives ahead of them." The firmness of her voice is betrayed by her shaking hand, reaching out to the symbiote. The world turns still...and then Donna is engulfed by the mass, her scream ringing out.

"NO!" Parker fights against their bonds once again until Natalie jabs them in the neck with a taser, the shock to their system enough to force them to stop struggling. Panic and fear still rise in their throat though as they watched the horrifying black mass shake as though it were having a seizure...and then it stops, slowly hardening like the others. That meant Donna was still alive, didn't it? Her body was in there. Parker needed to get in there and break the shells of the cocoons and rescue Donna and the others-

Natalie pulls a walkie talkie out of her pocket and presses a button, the following crackle breaking Parker out of their thoughts. "Get rid of the fodder.”

_"Acknowledged."_ A few of the people in the side room move, switching positions. There's a sizzle, and to Parker's horror the floor of the cell sparks to life, electrocuting the remaining three prisoners so harshly that they don't even have time to scream before they fall lifeless to the floor. Parker can barely keep bile from rising their throat as the scent of burnt flesh fills the room and some of the scientists behind them retch.

Natalie, as always, watches this with a sort of smirk, her arms folded. "What are the readings?"

"All the cocoons are emitting waves similar to those found within NREM sleep," one of the scientists reports, gesturing to her monitor. "Cocoons one through four are emitting pure delta waves, while cocoon five is emitting theta waves. Estimated time of emergence is roughly one to two hours."

"Excellent. Don't let those walls down. We're not giving them the option to escape." Natalie turns to face Parker, showing genuine excitement. "I'm really quite glad you could join us, Aquaticus. It is an honor for the city's hero to witness my greatest achievement."

"Achievement?" Parker manages to spit out. "You _murdered_ everyone in that cell! Science should not come at the cost of the lives of others!"

"But it does. Marie Curie died from exposure to the radiation she had been studying. The drug THN1412, meant to cure leukemia, caused fatalities in the patients. And even these cases can give us useful data. Nazi experimentation resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands, but they provided us with research on how the cold affects human beings." She smiles, cold excitement shining in her eyes. "We can use the bodies in the cell to figure out why certain people were not able to sustain a bond with the symbiotes, and how we can alter either ourselves or these creatures in order to generate more successes. We can study them even further, ask the questions we could not get answers for before due to language barriers. This is how we progress."

Parker shakes their head. "This isn't progress! This is murder! You're sick! You-" Natalie tases them again, and they scream, body shaking long after the initial shock. "Wh-What do you want from me? Why do you want me to see this?"

"There's nothing you can offer me. I'm not interested in your identity or killing you." The woman begins to walk in a circle around the hero. "Too many villains waste their time with such trivial matters. If I kill you, someone else will rise to take your place, and this game will start all over again. No, Aquaticus." She stops right behind Parker and grips onto their shoulders, leaning in, her hands gripping tighter as she speaks. "I want to teach you a *lesson.* I don't care about any of the other so-called villains in this city, so you can chase after them all you like. But I'm not one of them. I've been working on this project for years, and I'm not letting anything stop me from completing it.

"If there's one thing I've learned from my years as a scientist, it's that progress is inevitable. You can't stop it from happening. All that you can do is let it happen, or even aid it, as I am doing now." Natalie pauses, studying Parker. "However, I am not lacking in mercy. Perhaps when you finally understand, you will ask to join by my side. And I will let you. I know that you are smarter than you let on. And I do not believe in wasting resources." She finally lets go, and Parker sucks in a shaky breath as she finally steps back. "Until then, I will continue my work. And though I will not kill you, if you dare interfere again, I will not hesitate to hurt you, nor anyone you might care about."

Parker hisses. “You’re not getting away with this. I-“

“Really? Are you going to continue playing hero? I don’t have time to listen to your pathetic whimpering while I work. Take a nap instead.”

The taser strikes Parker square in the neck again, but this time it doesn’t let up until their eyes have rolled into their head and their body has slumped over.

* * *

 

Parker doesn’t know how long they were knocked out, or how long they were awake before finally registering the room around them. Their wrists throbbed from being restrained for so long, and the feeling in their legs was gone. They experimentally kicked out, and the static feeling they got was enough to make them wince.

Natalie’s not paying any attention to them, instead focused on examining the monitors across the room, whispering to the scientists stationed there. A few security personnel eye the spider nervously, but Parker doesn’t pay them any mind, focusing on trying to restore the feelings to their limbs.

"Doctor Espen!" one of the scientist calls, startling Parker out of their thoughts. "The first four cocoons are no longer emitting delta waves. They should be waking up soon."

Natalie rushes over to his monitor, examining the wavelengths. "Make sure that every recording device is still running. Be ready to make observations. And do not let them out until I give permission."

A crack echoes throughout the room as the first of the cocoons splits open. For a terrifying moment, nothing moves-then an inhumanly large hand shoots up out of the remains, slamming down onto the ground so hard that the tile cracks. The creature hauls itself out, sharp tongue flickering out as impossibly huge white eyes study the room, long green tendrils snaking from its back. “Wh…Where…” It stands up on surprisingly steady legs, looking down at its body. “I…have a host?”

Natalie steps up to the glass, drinking in the sight of the newly hatched symbiote with calculating eyes. “Tell me about yourself.”

“I am-I am Ram- “

“Not your host name. _You_.”

There’s silence yet again, then the symbiote raises its head. “I am Lasher.”

Natalie smiles. “Good. What about your siblings?”

“There is Agony, Riot, Phage, and Scream. Scream is youngest. Agony is oldest.” The scientists are hurriedly scribbling down notes, hardly looking up at the glass cell as they record data. “They have not hatched?”

“Not yet. But we will welcome them to the world soon.”

Another crack resounds through the room, and a hulking icy blue figure rises from the second cocoon, humming low. Lasher walks over and holds out his hand, letting the second symbiote take it. “Come now, Riot. We must greet our siblings when they hatch.”

“We have bodies?” Riot murmurs in surprise, staring at his brother, then himself. “We survived the metamorphosis?”

“Survived?” Natalie queries.

“Bonding to a host is…hard. Even if we find a suitable host, young symbiotes such as us do not always survive the first bonding,” Lasher explains.

Natalie scowls. “We need all five of you. We don’t have any other symbiote seeds and getting our hands on more is going to take too long.”

Riot hisses. “We are not so easily controlled. You should know this by now.”

The third and fourth cocoons crack open. Another imposing figure, this time golden, hauls himself out with a grunt, while a lithe purple figure slithers out of her cocoon, sniffing at the charred human bodies. “The meat is burnt,” she observes. “Brain matter is still edible, though.” Parker had already felt nauseous by this point, but that sentence alone makes them gag, grateful that their stomach is empty.

The golden symbiote snorts. “Poor Agony, always hungry.”

“You eat more than I do, Phage,” Agony scolds.

“You are welcome to eat as much of the bodies as you please,” Natalie offers, though her smile is strained. “We have no other uses for them.”

Agony pauses, considering the scientist’s words, then grabs the head of the nearest corpse and slams it against the ground, splitting it open with a sickening crunch before sticking her tongue into the newly formed gash, and the other three follow suit. Parker turns away, wishing that their mask could filter the sound. A few of the scientists run out of the room, hands clamped over their mouths, and even Natalie looks somewhat sickened. By the time Parker looks back, several of the corpses have been piled up, skulls cracked open, and the fifth cocoon still lies dormant.

Phage tilts his head, studying Parker. “Who is this? They are tied up.”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Natalie cuts in. “We need the fifth cocoon to wake up.”

Agony reaches out and lays her hand on top of the fifth cocoon, waiting a second before bowing her head. “I’m sorry, Scream.”

Lasher’s eyes widen. “You don’t-“

Phage rests his hand on Riot’s shoulder. “We knew this was a possibility. At least we still all have each other.” Agony’s brothers join her, sitting around the fifth cocoon.

Natalie’s eyes narrow. “What are you talking about? There’s still waves emitting from it.”

“As my brother said before, we don’t always survive our first bonding,” Phage explains. "Even if the host is suitable enough, rejection can still occur later on in the process, or the host can overload and die, taking us with it."

Natalie's silent, then she runs a hand through her hair and sighs. “Disable the electrical currents save for the ones directly under the cocoon. We’re shocking it out.”

All four of the symbiotes hiss angrily at this, assuming defensive positions. “She is our sibling,” Phage growls. “We will not let you hurt her.”

“Really? The five of you had no qualms with hurting each other when you fought over your meals.”

“You made us, you vile woman! We all fought for your amusement!”

But his cry falls on deaf ears. Natalie’s already walking to the side room, slamming the door shut behind her. It’s impossible to hear the orders she barks, even with Parker’s advanced hearing, but it’s not long before the floor is brought back to life. The symbiotes shy away from the bolts of electricity, looking fearful, as if they were not strangers to electric shock. Yet the cocoon does not budge, even as the shocks get louder and brighter and the scent of charred flesh grows. The lights in the room flicker rapidly, and the room seems to hold its breath…until the electricity dies, and it all returns to normal. There is no change, and the symbiotes don’t move, staring at the cocoon holding their sibling.

Jamison pulls out his walkie talkie, swallowing nervously. “There’s nothing, ma’am. What now?”

The cocoon explodes.

The symbiotes press up against the walls, shielding themselves as the cell is covered in yellow goo with red streaks. In the middle of it all lays the wreckage of the last cocoon, the one that had been holding Donna, which laid empty. Parker’s heart nearly stopped when they realized that. Was-Was she gone? Was she-God, they couldn’t even bear to consider it-

_“What the_ fuck _was that?!”_ It’s the most emotion Parker’s ever heard from Natalie over the years of knowing her, and it startles them nearly as much as the explosion had.

“The-The cocoon burst?” Jamison stammers. “We don’t-The electricity must have overloaded it and melted the symbiote.”

“You killed her!” Lasher howls. “You killed Scream!” All four of the symbiotes turned, jaws unhinging as they lunge at the walls of the cell. Riot throws his hulking mass into the wall while Phage hits the center multiple times, having transformed his hands into sharp rocklike masses. Lasher’s tendrils claw at the edges, and Agony spits out a massive glob of green that sizzles when it hits the glass. Many of the scientists drop their equipment in fear, and a few run to the door, slipping out of the room.

The sight of the four snarling aliens attempting to escape was nearly enough to distract Parker from how the goop behind them bubbles, slowly forming into a humanoid shape. When they do notice, however, their eyes widen. “Behind you!”

But it’s too late. The newly formed mass strikes Riot in the back, ripping into his inky mass and pulling out something akin to a human heart oozing liquid black, seeming to swallow the light around it, and presses it into itself. Riot gurgles and falls lifeless to the floor, tongue lolling out. Lasher, Phage, and Agony turn to see this, and they all attack with loud cries. The mass dodges, hiding in its goop before jumping back up to strike, tossing its siblings hard against the walls. Lasher is the next to go down, mass being ripped out of him similarly and absorbed. As it grows, the goop comes together, until it’s become a form that lazily mimics that of Agony, with no eyes and dripping across the floor, stumbling as it stands in place. Phage and Agony circle warily, not having time to mourn their fallen siblings.

_“Enough of this!”_ Natalie’s voice rings out clear over an intercom, and the three symbiotes pause in their battle. _“I am not losing any more of you. Now. Symbiote five. If you do not behave, I guarantee you will never gain a proper physical form. Same goes for you, Phage and Agony. Stand down.”_

“Murderer,” Agony hisses, though she and Phage retreat to the corner. The mass stays in the middle of the cell, seeming to look around the room, though there are still no eyes. It stops when it sees Parker, and they hold their breath. Was Donna still there…?

_“Symbiote five. Tell me who you are.”_

No answer.

_“Symbiote five.”_

No answer.

_“Symbiote five.”_

No answer.

Natalie growls. _“Who are you?”_

Finally, the mass opens its eyes, revealing them to be a pure white just like its siblings. It opens its mouth, and it lets out a cry of pure anguish.

The walls of the plexiglass cell shatter, and Agony and Phage tumble out, jumping into defensive positions. The remaining scientists cover their ears, including the ones in the side room behind their now-cracked glass wall. The plastic ties around Parker’s wrists warp, loosening, and they slip out of them to cover their own ears, gritting their teeth as they curl up on the ground, knowing that scream would haunt them for the rest of their life.

When it stops, the newly formed symbiote walks out, striding out to the side room to stare down the scientists still in the room. It meets eyes with Natalie, who stares back defiantly, as if daring it to come and attack her. Some of the scientists in the room with Parker try to make a run for the door, but the symbiote shoots a mass of yellow at the door, solidifying around the lock and making it impossible to leave, though they attempt to break it. Finally, the symbiote walks towards Parker, grabbing the back of their hood and lifting their head up. Parker can’t help choking out a small sob, tears burning in their eyes. This-This couldn’t be it, could it? They couldn’t die at the hands of the monster that had absorbed their teacher.

A shot rings out, and a bullet plunges into the symbiote’s shoulder, which oozes out. Jamison stands behind it, the gun shaking in his hands. “Y-You monster,” he gasps, face as pale as snow. “How could you do this to us?”

The symbiote stands and turns to face him, walking slowly. He fires off another shot into her leg, backing up as she continues to approach. “You’ve ruined everything!” A third shot into her stomach. “You killed two of our subjects!” A fourth shot into her neck. “Why would you do this to us?!” A fifth shot into her forehead. “Who do you think you are?!” He stumbles up against the wall, eyes wide as the symbiote stands in front of him. It shakes its body, and the bullets fall out, clattering against the floor. It smiles, jaw stretching inhumanly wide.

“Scream.”

Her tongue lashes out, and Jamison is gone, gun clattering to the floor. A loud cry rings out. It wouldn’t be until much later, however, that Parker would realize they were the one who had screamed.


End file.
